his pulpit at St. Paul's-this, wrote Erasmus, had CHAP. VII. been Colet's first great work; and surely it had borne A.D. 1512. much fruit! school. To found a school, wherein the sons of the people Colet's should drink in Christ along with a sound educationthat thereby, as it were in the cradle of coming generations, the foundation might be laid of the future welfare of his country-this had been the second great work to which Colet had devoted time, talents, and a princely fortune. in praise What is this, I ask, but to act as a father to all your Erasmus 'children and fellow-citizens? You rob yourself to of Colet's make them rich; you strip yourself to clothe them. work. You wear yourself out with toil, that they may be quickened into life in Christ. In a word, you spend 'yourself away that you may gain them for Christ! 6 'He must be envious, indeed, who does not back ' with all his might the man who engages in a work like this. He must be wicked, indeed, who can gain say or interrupt him. That man is an enemy to England who does not care to give a helping hand ' where he can.' Which words in praise of Colet's self-sacrificing work were not merely uttered within hearing of those who might hang upon the lips of the aged Fitzjames or the bishop who had blasphemed' the school; they passed, with edition after edition of the Copia' of Erasmus, into the hands of every scholar in Europe, until they were known and read of all men !1 But Bishop Fitzjames, whose unabating zeal against 1 The first edition was printed at Paris by Badius. Another was printed by Schurerius (Argentorat.), January 1513. And, in Oct. 1514, Colet charged with heresy by his bishop. CHAP. VII. heretics had become the ruling passion of his old age, A.D. 1512. no longer able to control his hatred of the Dean, associated with himself two other bishops of like opinions and spirit in the ignoble work of making trouble for Colet. They resorted to their usual weapon-persecution. They exhibited to the Archbishop of Canterbury articles against Colet extracted from his sermons. Their first charge was that he had preached that images ought not to be worshipped. The second charge was that he had denied that Christ, when He commanded Peter the third time to feed his lambs,' made any allusion to the application of episcopal revenues in hospitality or anything else, seeing that Peter was a poor man, and had no episcopal revenues at all. The third charge was, that in speaking once from his pulpit of those who were accustomed to read their sermons, he meant to give a side-hit at the Bishop of London, who, on account of his old age, was in the habit of reading his sermons.1 Proceed ings But the Archbishop, thoroughly appreciating as he did the high qualities of the Dean, became his protector and advocate, instead of his judge. Colet himself, says Erasmus, did not deign to make any reply to these foolish charges, and others more foolish still.' 2 And the Archbishop, therefore, without hearing any reply, indignantly rejected them. What the charges more foolish still' may have been quashed by Erasmus does not record. But Tyndale mentions, as a well known fact, that the Bishop of London would Warham. have made Dean Colet of Paules a heretic for trans lating the Paternoster in English, had not the [Arch-] 1 Eras. Op. iii. p. 460, D and E. 2 Ibid. p. 460, E. A.D. 1512. bishop of Canterbury helped the Dean.'1 Colet's CHAP. VII. English translation or paraphrase of the Paternoster still remains to show that he was open to the charge. But for once, at least, the persecutor was robbed of his prey! For a while, indeed, Colet's voice had been silenced; but now Erasmus was able to congratulate his friend on his return to his post of duty at St. Paul's. to Colet. 'I was delighted to hear from you' [he wrote from Erasmus Cambridge], and have to congratulate you that you ' have returned to your most sacred and useful work of 'preaching. I fancy even this little interruption will 'be overruled for good, for your people will listen to your voice all the more eagerly for having been deprived of it for a while. May Jesus, Optimus 'Maximus, keep you in safety!'3 III. MORE IN TROUBLE AGAIN (1512). In closing this chapter, it may perhaps be remarked that little has been heard of More during these the first years of his return to public life. grossed in The fact is, that he had been too busy to write many More enletters even to Erasmus. He had been rapidly drawn business. into the vortex of public business. His judicial office of undersheriff of London had required his close attention every Thursday. His private practice at the 13 Tyndale, p. 168 (Parker So- | Marie Virginis secundum usum ciety). 'Sarum totaliter ad longum.' · Knight's Life of Colet, App. Miscellanies, No. xii. p. 450. 2 The Seven Peticyons of the 'Paternoster, by Joan Colet, Deane of Paules,' inserted in the collec 3 Eras. Epist. cvii. Brewer, No. tion of Prayer entitled 'Hore beate | 3495, under date 1st Nov. 1512. CHAP. VII. bar had also in the meantime rapidly increased, and AD. 1512. drawn largely on his time. When Erasmus wrote to know what he was doing, and why he did not write, the answer was that More was constantly closeted with the Lord Chancellor, engaged in grave business,'1 and would write if he could. What leisure he could snatch history of from these public duties he would seem to have been devoting to his History of Richard III.,2 the materials for which he probably obtained through his former connection with Cardinal Morton. More writes his Richard III. Death of his wife. His four children. And were we to lift the veil from his domestic life, we should find the dark shadow of sorrow cast upon his bright home in Bucklersbury. But a few short months ago, such was the air of happiness about that household, that Ammonius, writing as he often did to Erasmus, to tell him all the news, whilst betraying, by the endearing epithets he used, his fascination for the loveliness of More's own gentle nature, had spoken also of his most good-natured wife,' and of the children ' and whole family' as 'charmingly well.'3 Now four motherless children nestle round their widowed father's knee. Margaret, the eldest daughter dated April 27, from Paris, and written by Erasmus during his stay there in 1511. 4 The date of the death of More's first wife it is not easy exactly to fix. Cresacre More says, 'His wife Jane, as long as she lived, which was but some six years, brought unto 6 Life of Sir T. More, p. 40. This would bring her death to 1511, or 1512. 'rime valet.'-Ammonius to Eras-him almost every year a child.'- |